


To Make the Dream Work

by GealachGirl



Series: Holiday/winter "ficlets" 2018-19 [7]
Category: Daredevil (TV), The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M, Post-Season/Series 03, Snow, Snowmen, Team Bonding, and isn't serious, author projects her own feelings about snow into fic, building on history, everyone hates group projects, it's a truth universally acknowledged, re-connecting, some light hurt/comfort too, that's addressed immediately, very very light ableism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 18:31:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17493071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GealachGirl/pseuds/GealachGirl
Summary: Sometimes teamwork is hard. That's where snow, snowmen and hypothetical snowball fights come in.





	To Make the Dream Work

**Author's Note:**

> Someday I'll write fluff and not spill feelings into it.
> 
> From this prompt: we’re stuck together on a group project and everyone is tired and frustrated so you suggest we take a break and build a snowman

No one liked group projects, it was a fact of life. It was especially true if you were a smart kid.

Throw in the blind card and Matt won the lottery for having the worst time in group settings — with people assuming he could either do much less than he could. Or much more.

But he wasn’t in college anymore, and he’d thought that — outside of his work with Foggy — he was done with group work forever.

Being a vigilante was full of surprises.

New York’s newest experimental and dangerous drug ring stretched across the city, touching all the corners of Manhattan, but because it was street-level, it was the lesser-known powered people taking care of it.

Matt had been tracking it the longest, so when Jess asked him about someone her client’s son had worked with and Matt recognized the name, they’d decided to work together.

And then Luke wanted to know if they’d heard anything because Harlem was alight in new, barely underground drug trafficking and he had a feeling it was bigger than his neighborhood.

Danny hadn’t been far behind, suspecting that old Hand operatives were also mixed in.

Foggy was involved because Matt had asked him for help with the investigation and he and Jess were masters at digging through documents to find details. He would have asked Karen if she were less busy, and now he was glad he hadn’t.

Adding another person to this mess would’ve been a disaster. Matt had worked, successfully, with all of these people before, but this was a far cry from that.

The air in Jess’ office was heavy with frustration and buzzing from the last irritated outburst.

Foggy’s bouncing leg vibrated the air in short, steady waves of sensation, and his slacks made a persistent swishing noise.

Luke’s grumbly sighs were soft, but they shook the air even more.

The sound of Danny tugging at his hair was just irregular enough to put Matt on edge.

Jess was at the bottom of another bottle of Jameson, tapping irritably on her laptop.

And his braille display didn’t really keep up with everyone else’s ability to skim the documents they were scouring. Too small and a touch too slow.

“Nelson, do you have the property records for the headquarters we zeroed in on?” Jess asked. Her bottle thumped heavily onto her desk and the bounce of the whiskey in the bottom told Matt there was little more than a swallow left.

Foggy dragged a hand over his face and his hair swished as he turned his head, searching for the documents in the fan that surrounded him. It only took him a second. “No, Matt was looking at those.”

Jess’ response was a cross between a sigh and a grumble, and Matt hunched his shoulders. She muttered something about how if he were “looking” at anything this wouldn’t be taking so long. He prickled, embarrassed and offended even though he knew she didn’t mean it.

“If you want to add to your reading list, I can do something else,” he said, not bothering to mask the heat in his voice.

Uploading the files to his laptop, filtering them through the screen reader and waiting the seconds it took for the braille display to recreate the text for him was his only option without a braille printer and in a crowded room without earbuds.

It _would_ be faster if he could do something else, but there were too many documents to get through for that. The ice and snow that coated everything outside limited what Daredevil could do, too, at least with the others around.

Foggy’s heartbeat spiked angrily. “Hey, it’s not his fault we can’t find the smoking gun. Don’t blame it on him because he can’t glance for keywords,” he snapped, and Matt’s chest swelled the way it did every time Foggy called people out on their ableism.

He felt bad because he shouldn’t get so much joy out of Foggy losing his temper, but the rush of fire in his voice, the feeling of him tensing up and the smell of his adrenaline was all incredibly thrilling, especially when it was for Matt.

It didn’t matter that Jess was right.

“Why are we looking at all of this?” Danny asked. “I don’t need this much background and I think we’ve found the most important things to get started.” His hand passed through his hair again, fingerprints catching on his scalp, but it stayed there this time.

“We’re trying to take all of it down at once,” Luke said. He sounded more annoyed with Danny than usual and Matt guessed he’d found the drug ring’s footprint went deeper into Harlem than he’d thought. “We didn’t go through all that shit at Midland Circle,” Matt heard Foggy flinch, “to let this thing sprout up again. And I’m sure as hell not letting it tear my neighborhood apart.”

“You’re talking like you think I am,” Danny shot back as he got to his feet. And Matt could feel the fist, though he wasn’t sure if it was glowing.

It was a bizarre sensation. The energy hummed at a high frequency as it curled around Danny’s fist, and it vibrated hard enough to disrupt all the air in the room — Matt wouldn’t be surprised if the others could feel it. It made his whole body tense.

“Knock that shit off,” Jess snapped, still behind her desk. “Drop it and get back to doing the work we all need done. We still have to track down the shipments and the locations.”

Something about Foggy changed, and Matt tuned into the rapid drumming of his fingertips against his leg. “Hold up,” he said. Firm.

Everything in the office stilled, and Matt was relieved that Danny had gotten control of himself again.

“This isn’t working, it isn’t going to work,” he held up a hand when Jess drew a breath to protest, “so we’re going to take a break.” Matt knew that tone, it was the one that brooked no arguments, the one that had pulled Matt out of his books and forced food on him in college, the one that brought juries to attention.

“And we’re going to do it by going out into the snow and building a goddamn snowman. Maybe we can have a snowball fight, though I’m hesitant to suggest that with a bunch of powered people as my competition.”

There was lift and a strain to his voice that told Matt how much Foggy wanted and needed it. Outside, he heard the swishing sound of snow sliding against the window and his own anger settled. Foggy loved going out into the snow, and Matt loved joining him.

“I’d team up with you,” he said, relishing the smile Foggy shot his way.

“Hell no, I want the people who have super strength. You just have senses and reflexes.”

“It’s on, Nelson. You won’t be knocking the reflexes when I kick your ass.”

“Jesus, make it stop,” Jessica groaned.

The tension in the room lifted a little. 

And that was how they found themselves in the empty lot behind Jess’ building, where a healthy deposit of snow had built up. The snow was still falling and Matt let himself get lost in tracking the snowflakes as they drifted down.

“Okay Murdock, help me roll this into a big ball,” Foggy said, kneeling in the snow and pulling together a pile.

Matt liked the snow, the way it softened the world’s edges and muffled it in his ears. He’d lived with the snow all his life, so its effect on his senses was limited. He’d learned how to adjust. And he loved how the world went hushed and still with it, and the sliding, rushing sound the flakes made against the windows, and the light feeling of it touching his skin.

It softened the others, too. Instead of snapping at each other, Luke and Danny were searching for decorations, and even though Jess was just standing there with her arms crossed, she wasn’t gritting her teeth anymore.

It was hard to say if it was the snow or Foggy.

Matt helped grow the snowball Foggy had started, and then helped him straighten a smaller ball on top of it, making the appropriate blind jokes and laughing at Foggy’s. The others even got kind of involved, too.

He let himself get lost in the falling snow again as the others debated how to use rocks to give it a face.

They were laughing and Matt could hear and feel the affection come back into their interactions. He hadn’t expected to grow his number of friends after the end of Nelson & Murdock, or to recover the ones he’d had originally.

He guessed he had Fisk and Stick’s bullshit war with the Hand to thank for that.

Foggy came back to his side while Danny and Luke tried to rope Jessica into decorating the snowman.

“This was a good idea, counselor,” Matt said quietly. He was almost relieved Foggy had stopped working at HB&C, because as challenging as it was and good for Foggy to flex his intelligence, he cared too much about people. It showed in everything he did and it always had.

“Well I couldn’t have a showdown break out in that apartment. What the hell would I have done in a situation like that?” Foggy asked, laughter invading his words. “A squishy civilian like me wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“I’d protect you,” Matt said, seriously.

Foggy softened and drifted closer to Matt. He sounded happy, but there was a hint of a stutter in his breath before he said his next words. “I know, and I appreciate that, buddy.”

Despite the hitch in his breath, there was unwavering faith in his voice. A beacon that had been lighting Matt’s life since college. It faded and flickered sometimes, but he understood now that it would never go out.

Matt had no doubt they were thinking of same thing, and he felt the same overwhelming surge of protectiveness whenever he remembered how close Poindexter had come to killing Foggy. Foggy hadn’t been happy to hear about the scissors or the pencil, but Matt would do that over and over again as long as Foggy was still breathing.

“Okay, no,” Foggy said. “Stop thinking about that. We’re not out here to relive the past.” He put his arm in Matt’s as if Matt was going to lead him somewhere.

They were doing that more, too. The old ease of casual physical affection had crept back into their relationship and Matt cherished it every time it happened. He’d started doing it too and he always thrilled whenever Foggy accepted it.

“Right before we do that, I just want you to know I’ve always got your back, Fogs,” Matt said. Foggy swore he’d proved that and made up for what happened with Castle and Elektra, but Matt didn’t always feel it. He swayed toward Foggy. “And thank you for having mine.”

“Always, Matty. We’re Nelson and Murdock.”

“New York’s most unstoppable avocadoes.”

“And best friends.” His heart tripped over the words, believing them, but harder or…more?... than usual.

“Of course, that’s the most important part,” Matt replied.

Foggy sighed happily and tipped his face up to the snow. He loved it just as much as Matt did because he said it made the city look gorgeous while it was falling and in the moments before the traffic and the sun reached it.

“Are you two done?” Jess asked, and her voice sounded like it was trying to be irritated, but couldn’t quite manage it. “We do have to get back to the documents eventually.”

“Is the snowman finished?” Matt asked.

“It’s a little lopsided, but Jones did grant it her scarf,” Foggy told him.

“How generous.”

“This was good, but Jess is right. Let’s get back inside,” Luke said. His voice had smoothed out and the air around him parted calmly as always.

They gathered their stuff together, but before Matt moved, he tugged Foggy’s sleeve to hold him back. When he sensed Foggy turn toward him, he smiled and let the snow in his hand fall over Foggy’s head and down his back. He laughed as he dodged the flailing.

“What do you think about the reflexes now, Nelson?” he asked.

“You asshole,” Foggy squawked. “Don’t think I’m not getting you back for that.”

 

Back inside, the machine still didn’t run like it was well-oiled, but it did run again. Matt coordinated locations to watch with Jess, Luke and Foggy had a better idea of where the root of the problem was in Harlem, and Danny had been convinced that even if he didn’t find the Hand operatives right off the bat, this was still worth his time.

Jess also had information about where her client’s son had disappeared, and Matt had a “group supervisor” to help her intimidate tomorrow.

“You look a lot happier now,” Foggy observed as they walked back toward Matt’s apartment, arm in arm.

“I don’t think this case is going to take too much longer. And it’s very possible that we rouse up some law work while we’re at it,” Matt replied. Saying his mood was all down to Foggy would have been too much.

“Good things all around,” Foggy said happily. He was reaching out to run his hand through the snow collecting on railings and banisters and there was a bounce in his step that Matt could feel through his whole body from the way their arms were linked.

Matt grinned as he tightened his grip on Foggy’s arm in a makeshift hug and leaned into him. He got the impression of Foggy’s face turning toward his and had a split second to wonder what his expression might look like before he was viciously attacked.

“We’re having a nice moment here and I’m really sorry I have to ruin it like this, but I vowed revenge,” Foggy said as he smashed a handful of snow into the side of Matt’s head.

Matt squawked and stumbled, actually pitching into the street because it was so unexpected, pulling Foggy with him at the same time. The cold slid down his neck and dropped out of his ear and he felt a rush of giddy happiness rush through him.

He started laughing.

Foggy’s heartrate skyrocketed and he grabbed Matt’s arm and _pulled_ him back up the curb, toward him, with actual strength Matt always forgot he had.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Matty. Jesus, that was a dumb thing to do. Are you okay? Oh my God, stop laughing.” He was babbling, his heartbeat was still shattering in panic, and Matt felt the words hot against his lips.

He’d tried to stop imagining this years ago, but it had been a long time since the opportunity was so close. The happy buzz of the afternoon was still crowding out his better thoughts, and Foggy was solid warmth pressed against him, so he gave into temptation.

Foggy exhaled shakily, and he stiffened a little in Matt’s grasp. But after a moment, he relaxed, he brought his hand up to Matt’s jaw to guide their mouths into a better position, he kissed back.

Matt gripped harder with his right hand on Foggy’s sleeve and lifted the other to slide around the back of Foggy’s neck and rub the short hairs there between his fingers.

He sighed into it and felt that happy buzz settle into something steadier.  

“You know,” Foggy said when they separated, ostensibly for breath. He leaned his forehead into Matt’s. “No one’s really judging you because you can’t read the way everyone else does.”

His voice was warm and soft and comforting. It took Matt back to college when he was dealing with group projects on a more regular basis, and people who were even less understanding for how to work with someone with a disability.

That was how he’d learned to love Foggy’s protectiveness.

“I’m not actually upset about that, Foggy,” he replied. “She didn’t mean it.”

“She still shouldn’t have said it,” Foggy argued, real heat in his voice that made Matt’s chest swell.

But he shrugged. “I think that applies to like eighty percent of what Jessica says.” Foggy hummed like he thought that was fair.

They hadn’t moved yet, but they had gotten their breaths back, and Foggy clearly noticed because he adjusted the hand resting on Matt’s jaw and tipped his face so they were kissing again. His fingers skimmed down the side of Matt’s neck, gentle as when Matt read braille, and he shivered against Foggy’s warm chest.

Matt let go of Foggy’s sleeve to press his hand over his heart, feeling it beating strong beneath his palm.

“Is this something we should talk about?” he whispered against Foggy’s lips, and he felt their answering smile.  

“I can’t believe this is your response to a snowball fight.” Matt jabbed him in the side.

“If you want a real snowball fight, Nelson, you’re on.”

Foggy laughed, bright and warm, “No, no, I’d much rather be doing this.” He shifted forward to plant another lingering kiss on Matt’s lips. “Come on, Murdock, let’s go do this inside.” Then he stepped back, slipped their arms together again and started walking.

“I don’t know, Foggy. I really like the snow,” Matt said. It was coming down again, blanketing the city.

Foggy just squeezed his arm and laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> I can be found on [tumblr](http://booksandcoffeeandink.tumblr.com/), yelling about things in the tags.


End file.
